New City Looms On The Horizon

Sentinel exclusive

Could a slice of mammoth ranch morph into a metro area larger than Orlando?

October 13, 2008|By Kevin Spear, Sentinel Staff Writer

A ranch next door to Orlando fences in 453 square miles, a spread four times larger than the city -- and nearly 1 percent of Florida.

The ranch also ranks as the nation's top cattle producer, cradles the region's future water supply and spans three counties.

Yet relatively few people know Deseret Ranch by name or its notable owner, despite 58 years of operation.

That's about to change.

Central Florida's rapid development and relentless thirst for Deseret water have spurred the ranch's owner, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to take a hard look at options for land easily worth more than $1 billion.

Consultants have told church officials that a quarter of Deseret could be sliced off, providing real estate for a community larger and yet more livable than Orlando. The potential cityscape could lure four times more people than in the city limits of Orlando today.

That would be 1 million residents where cows now graze.

Innovation Way

Opening the ranch to thousands of homes would play out over decades, depending on unknown market forces and political choices. Unlocking the first gate could come this month.

Orange County politicians will decide whether to grant preliminary approval for Deseret to build 10,000 houses, condos and apartments on a 4,578-acre ranch tract four miles east of Orlando.

The county includes the property in a concept dubbed "Innovation Way," which envisions 80,000 medical and technology-related workers in a 17-mile corridor from the University of Central Florida to Orlando International Airport. Already sprouting in that path are the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the UCF College of Medicine.

Proponents say Innovation Way could add to a hub of high-paying jobs that lessen the region's dependence on construction and tourism. Opponents, including residents in the rural area, say it will add to Central Florida's sprawl -- much the same argument that helped kill a Deseret-proposed development there nearly 20 years ago.

A lot has happened since then.

Today, the push toward development is backed by the county's planning staff and Local Planning Agency, a citizens' panel -- and, most importantly, by county Mayor Rich Crotty.

Deseret Ranch officials want their tract designated for urban use so the land can be included in Innovation Way designs. On Oct. 28, the proposal will go to county commissioners and Crotty, chief proponent of Innovation Way.

Many aspects of Crotty's vision for the development concept are speculative, including who would pay for roads, parks and mass transit. That's where the Deseret land could prove tempting. Its owner has deep pockets and business savvy.

Crotty said this month that "based on what I know," he will vote to approve the tract for an urban future.

Bringing Deseret Ranch on board could bolster the region's economy. It also could put out a welcome mat for development in the last, biggest patch of green next to Orlando.

As it stands, cues for major development would have to come from outside the ranch, according to the Latter-day Saints.

Church authorities are listening and preparing for a day of decision.

"We will respond to the needs of the community," said Paul Genho, who from Salt Lake City oversees the church's commercial agricultural holdings worldwide. "If we have the appropriate land that can do it, and we can do it in a way that's beneficial to the community and beneficial to us, we'll respond to the needs."

The long view

Though not pristine, Deseret's mosaic of grazing land and cypress wetlands ensures a treasure of wildlife habitat and a huge cistern for rainfall. It harbors one of Florida's biggest colonies of endangered wood storks, a point of ranch pride.

The ranch, also in Osceola and Brevard counties, covers as much landscape as a national forest and cares for it without public expense. It's a good deal for taxpayers, as conservation goes, though barely appreciated because Deseret hides in plain view.

Area residents traverse 10 miles of the property when driving on the BeachLine between Orlando and the Atlantic surf. No signs call the slightest attention to one of the nation's biggest and most productive ranches.

Latter-day Saints are known for discretion, a manner that leaves government frustrated by little sense of Deseret intentions. That fuels suspicion that the church is a developer disguised in wrangler duds.

Ranch officials insist bona-fide cowboys will run the biggest part of the spread for decades.

"I know people don't believe that because I've had people say to me while I was down there, 'Well, we know that you're going to do this, and you got a deal there, and you're planning this,' " Genho said. "Again, we have a generational look at this. We're not looking at what happens next year or three years or five years from now. We basically have had that property for 58 years, and we expect to have it a long, long time again."